


[One Shot] Glades of Winter

by demonstrosity



Series: Overcoming The Storm [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: (more or less since it's not at the point in OTS where things start diverging majorly), Angst, Canon Compliant, Depression, M/M, Mania, Self-Hatred, Sirenia, Suicidality, music fic, symphonic metal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 17:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonstrosity/pseuds/demonstrosity
Summary: Takes place around Chapter 22 of Overcoming the Storm.Inspired by this beautiful song, which I have come to deeply associate with Kiyotaka:





	[One Shot] Glades of Winter

 

/In the fields of summer/  
/I will dance away with you/

Kiyondo’s turbulence didn’t keep him from reflecting.

In their month and change together, Mondo and his former self had talked all the time about what they’d do when they were no longer trapped in Hope’s Peak Academy. They both knew they might not get out, but becoming complacent in their situation would keep them from trying.

“I gotta take you on a ride, ‘course… Summer’s the best time for road trips!”

“I can’t believe it’s almost July already…”

“It feels so much longer… And shorter.”

“It does… With my time obsession I don’t usually think like that, but it really does.”

“What do *you* wanna do when we get outta this hellhole?”

“Aside from furthering my education and running for office?”

“Yeah, like, what do you wanna do with me?”

“I think it’d be easier to list things I *don’t* want us to do together!”

Mondo had laughed. “Humor me!”

There was one thing that came to mind. _Useless…_

  
/I never knew the pain would see us through…/

Suffering had been a running theme of both their lives.

“But I don’t know how!” Mondo groused, insecure where he stood in the middle of Taka’s room.

“I’ll teach you!”

“I’ll prolly just stomp on you or somethin’…”

“I’m sturdy, no need to worry. Please?”

“Alright…”

If they had known what was approaching, what would they have done differently?

  
/And though we fear the silence/  
/We never ever realized/  
/That life was only passing gently by/

“You’re good at this.”

“I had training for formal events! I never got to really use it though…”

“We’ll get out, bro. We have to.”

_Pipe dreams… That’s all they fudgin’ were. If that chunk a’ meat had just looked around more, maybe…_

It had been so easy to find peace together in Monokuma’s quiet. Now that same silence was eating him alive, and he was keenly aware it would forever.

/When the darkness seems to fall/  
/Then I can hear you call/  
/Your voice is clearer now than before/

The clearest words of his life were the things Mondo told him before execution. They had rang in his head over and over for the two weeks that he was passively catatonic.  
_And Mondo showed up as a ghost… And then, I met Alter Ego._

Mondo’s message was loud and clear.

But was he following it?

  
/And in the summer rain/  
/I'll carry all your pain/  
/If I could only see you again/

He was no longer as deeply actively suicidal, having killed his past self in penance to start anew.

But with the death of Mondo, he could no longer dream of a future for himself. Not even transformed. All he could see was struggling to carry on for his dead lover for the rest of his life.

_I have to keep his legacy going… But will he be there, when I die?_

The similarity to his feelings in the wake of Mondo’s death and Mondo’s in the wake of Daiya’s didn’t occur to him.

/In the glades of summer/  
/A light still wanes in you/  
/Like winter days long gone/  
/In midst of June/

When he’d found out Mondo was depressed and suicidal, Taka thought he could support him. Having gone through that himself, Kiyondo couldn’t believe he’d fallen for that line of thinking.

The flame in Mondo’s eyes didn’t go out the night the secret motive was presented. His wick had been snuffed four years before Hope’s Peak. Taka hadn’t realized it was just a faintly glowing ember.

The biker had seemed to react positively to Taka’s actions, but the moral compass should’ve known that someone meddling could cause things to go downhill faster. _That idiot prolly made it even worse…_

He was so focused on flagellating his old self that he didn’t think about all the times that a single person supporting him had saved his own life. A person in grief often has myopia.

  
/And though the cross feels lighter/  
/On a warm midsummer night/  
/Why do we then still feel so cold inside/

Mondo would've gladly crucified himself if given the option. _Maybe he wouldn’t have been so primed to… to… do *that* to Chihiro… If Kiyotaka hadn’t pushed…_ The way Mondo was acting that night when they went to bed should have been a signifier to how bad a shape he was in. Mondo had told him as he stared death down that he hadn’t caused it, but how could Kiyondo *not* internalize blame?

Once his ego died and he became Kiyondo in manic pain, he thought it’d hurt less. But he didn’t. He lashed out his inner pain toward the others. It brought him no reprieve. He quietly craved the presence of the ones who were trying to help, but he couldn’t look past their hand in the biker’s death so he shoved them away as hard as he could. There was no one left. He couldn’t even go talk to Alter Ego.

He felt more alone than he had in his entire life.

/When the darkness seems to fall/  
/Then I can hear you call/  
/Your voice is weaker now than before/

Even as he conceptualized himself as even closer to the biker than ever, having taken in his soul, he found it more and more difficult to hold onto Mondo’s words.

Everyone else told him from the sidelines this wasn’t what he wanted. How could they know, though? They didn’t know Mondo like him…

_How could I even do anythin’ else…?_

He was trapped, he was lost, and he was damned.

  
/And in the summer rain/  
/You gave in to your pain/  
/And life will never be the same again/

He was forever changed.

A man named after a myriad pure summers was stuck for the rest of time in an eternal isolating winter.

**Author's Note:**

> I made this a one-shot in the greater series because it's a wildly different format from the rest, though it's still canon.
> 
> From the Danganronpa Wiki:  
> "The kanji for "Kiyotaka" (清多夏) translates into "a myriad pure summers". The kanji for "Ishimaru" (石丸) is composed of the kanji characters 石 ishi - stone, and 丸 maru, which among other things means both "circle" and "perfection". The last name could be meant to reflect Kiyotaka's stern personality, his perfectionism and his strong sense of justice."
> 
> MARINATE IN YOUR FEELINGS WITH ME (please let me know what you think <3)!


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